In the commonly assigned copending application Ser. No. 194,654, filed Nov. 1, 1971, (now U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,548) there is described a composition for the production of tobacco-like smokeable materials in which tobacco and non-tobacco botanicals, plasticizers, binders or film forming materials, flavoring agents and organic or inorganic salts and fillers are combined with water to produce a slurry, paste or mash. The latter, can be shaped into foils by casting upon a surface and, when dried, the foil can be subdivided into strands and the strands subdivided, in turn, to produce fibers of a convenient length. The composition is characterized by pleasant smoking characteristics as pipe, cigarette and cigar tobacco and when, in the following description, reference is made to a tobacco-like composition it is to be understood that the composition described in the aforementioned copending application may be employed.
If herein and hereinafter there is mention of tobacco pulp, then by this should be understood a pulp containing natural tobacco and/or tobacco substitutes which, by drying, can be molded into a smokeable, regenerated tobacco or tobacco substitute.
Extruder nozzles of the kind referred to above serve the purpose of forming the pulp into fiber form, so that the latter, when set by drying, may be processed directly into smokeable materials.
In one known nozzle of the kind referred to above, five pulp outlet openings are located side by side, from each of which a continuous tobacco strand issues which by drying sets into an extremely long tobacco fiber which can then be cut into required lengths.